Mariano Rajoy

Mariano Rajoy (27 March 1955-) was Prime Minister of Spain from 20 December 2011 to 1 June 2018, succeeding Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and preceding Pedro Sanchez. Leader of the People's Party of Spain from 2004, he was forced to resign after a successful 2018 vote of no-confidence following revelations that his party had engaged in, and protected, institutional corruption.

Biography
Mariano Rajoy was born in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain in 1955, and he was elected to the Galician Parliament in 1981 as a member of the Alianza Popular. In 1986, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the AP's list for Pontevedra, and he became a member of the National Executive Committee of the newly-formed People's Party of Spain in 1989. In 1996, he became Minister of Public Administration under Jose Maria Aznar, and he changed his portfolio in 1999 to become Education Minister; he would later serve as Interior Minister and Minister of the Presidency. In 2003, he became Secretary General of the People's Party, and he served as Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2011 under Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government. In 2011, he was elected Prime Minister, and he oversaw a major restructuring of the Spanish financial system and labor reform. Unemployment peaked at 27% in 2012 due to the effects of the Great Recession, and his party's involvement with corruption led to the rise of Podemos on the left and Ciudadanos on the right. His second term in office was marked by economic recovery and a drop in unemployment, but also by stagnating salaries. In 2017, he oversaw the imposition of direct rule in Catalonia after Catalonia's short-lived state of independence in October. On 31 January 2018, he was found to have taken a bribe of 250,000 euros, mostly from private building companies, and he was ousted in a vote of no-confidence on 1 June 2018 and succeeded by PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez.